Posts Tagged ‘Gym’

“Prior to utilising the services of Andrew, I guess I was your typical young professional, working all hours in establishing my business, eating when I could, playing a bit of mid-week football and not really thinking too much about my diet whilst also enjoying my weekend drinking binges. Having flirted with the gym for over 4 years and crossing 30, I decided that I needed to improve my general well-being and decided to seek the assistance of Andrew Morrissey who works out of the Dragon Hotel in Swansea City Centre. I did not envy his task at first, as to say I was unfit was an understatement, but he provided some great encouragements along with some very useful tips and nutrition advice, slowly but surely over a 3 month period the Andrew’s work and my endeavour began to pay off, the training is varied, methodical and Andrew applies it with detailed explanations of the numerous positive effects it has on the human body, along with some humour along the way. 11 months on and I have lost over 1 ½ stone (9.5kg). Andrew’s knowledge and input has turned keeping fit into a way of life for me and I have found it easy to integrate my training sessions into a very busy schedule.”

We had our biannual staff party on Sunday, the theme was all around the world and boy did the staff put the effort into their costumes!

The room was perfectly decorated with themes and national flags from all around the world. We had a double bungee run, so the competition was fierce we had chefs to the hotel fitness guru taking part and somebody nearly broke it (not mentioning any names!).

The staff danced the night away with our resident DJ; we played some party games and had a limbo dance off!

All in all everyone had a fab evening and there were plenty of sore heads on Monday morning!

Sean (Reservations co-ordinator) is on countdown and has been since the beginning of the year! His holidays are fast approaching where he will be found sunning his well earned pecks after working hard in the hotels Healthclub on the White Island they call ‘IBIZA’ Lucky him…!!!

Sean will be found in his Mankini doing the funky chicken on Bora Bora beach if you should see him say Hi!

Louise will be crying into her Coffee cup in his absence. Hopefully we will have a heat wave here and we will see some Sun too.

Let’s hope time will fly by (for Louise at least) and Sean will be back in the office with Louise’s BIG duty free gift!!

Don’t you just love those morning when you wake up at 04:45 and you go straight out the kitchen and bake some healthy muffins…..not happened to you? Ah, well it was a first for me too!
My hubby bought a new flavour whey protein (Apple Cinnamon Swirl) and I just HAD to make some muffins out of it because I NEEDED to try it!
And my recipe worked first time!!
HEEEEEAVEN!
Here’s a mini recipe and a few piccys of how these little apply, cinnamony, crazy time in the morning-y, little creations turned out!
Xxx

I made 4 out of the ingredients so each muffin has the following:
Calories: 98
Carbs: 1.5g
Protein: 9.25g
Fat: 6g (only 1g saturated)
Fibre: 1.75g
Sugar: 1g

I cut mine in half and added a teaspoon of natural nut butter, so add that to your macros too!
Xx

After 6 fabulous years, Rob has finally taken the jump and is moving on to pastures new! So Rob leaves Tara and Andy to take on the Personal Training in The Dragon Hotel in Swansea to the next level and look forward to welcoming Natalie and Louise to the Team!!

As with any celebration (we are sad that rob is leaving us….honest!), there has to be some celebratory drinks.

Many of the staff from The Dragon Health Club and Hotel met up on Saturday for a day of Sport and Socialising. Naturally, some of the boys had to start celebrations after a large cooked breakfast so the partying started at 12pm. Then it was a few drinks whilst watching Swansea vs Arsenal (we lost L ) and then a few more to watch Wales vs England! Woo Hoo!!! We won!!!

So there was more celebrating! This lasted into the early hours of the morning. Needless to say, after a shift of partying in excess of 12 hours (Rob struggles putting hard work in for 8 hours) Rob was a little sleepy, and managed a bit of shut eye before actually getting to bed!!

We all partied hard to make sure Rob had a good send off and we wish him all the very best of luck in his new job!!

Shrove Tuesday will be upon us so we thought we’d get in really early and make sure that not only are you prepared for some flipping good fun, but you’re also having a healthy pancake day this year!

Tara Hammett, our Health Club Manager and one of Swansea and South Wales’ top Personal Trainers (Did we mention finalist in the National Fitness Awards Personal Trainer of the Year 2012?) has shared her healthy pancake recipe that will keep your mid week healthy nutrition in check! It’s gluten free, high in fibre and massive on taste!

Ingredients: (for one pancake, increase ingredients accordingly)

For the pancake:

1 Tablespoon Coconut Flour

2 Egg Whites

¼ Cup Coconut Milk

For cooking in the pan:

Coconut Oil

For adding at the end (optional):

¼ teaspoon Truvia

Lemon

Mix all your pancake ingredients together. Firstly I whisked my egg whites up, then I added the flour and milk to a nice little batter.

Add ½ teaspoon of coconut oil to the pan and swish it around.

Add your pancake batter to the pan and cook on one side for about a minute whilst swishing (said that twice now) the batter evenly around the edges.

Then…..the next move is your shout….what will it be??

A Flip????

Or

Risk a toss???

Well…..I’m gonna put it out there – I flipped!! Which I must say is medium on the adventurous scale, because sometimes I totally bail out and cook the other side under the grill (top tip).

Cook the other side for about another 30 seconds, then slide it out onto your plate, sprinkle with a bit of truvia and squeeze some fresh lemon and tuck in!!

NOM!!

So, you’ve had fun, you feel like you’ve indulged and you can enjoy the rest of your evening guilt free!!

The snow certainly came and made its mark and it’s been getting to the health club staff as outdoor training has been a no go and it’s been quiet as many of the team’s personal training clients from Swansea have been snowed in, even though Swansea City Centre was still moving. Although residential areas certainly resembled more of a winter wonderland!

Andrew hasn’t been out on his bike for a week – which is unheard of! Tara had to sleep in the hotel (not that she’s moaning) on Thursday night. Rob has put on a few pounds as he’s not been able to go out running and believes ‘comfort eating’ will protect him from the cold. James has also missed a few gym sessions but luckily, we all have Tara’s home HIIT workout video’s to follow to make sure the snow doesn’t sabotage our fitness to much!

But…we’re hopeful that the big melt is on its way and getting back to fitness and healthy eating is high on the agenda!

Tara has kicked off the Diet Tribe with Badger & Claire on 96.4fm The Wave and we’re all looking forward to seeing how much weight the tribe will lose over the next 6 weeks! Listen out to Tara on air for all her top fitness and nutrition tips.

Need some motivation to keep in shape in December and burn off the Christmas party buffet & the celebratory drink or two?

Then join in with Tara Hammett, one of the Top Personal Trainers in Swansea and The Dragon Hotel Health Club Manager as she kicks off her FREE ‘Merry Fitmas – Advent Workouts’

Tara will be kicking off the festive fitness on Saturday 1st December and will be helping keep everyone fit & fab with 12 minute home workouts that you can do every morning. You can join in too for free and receive your short workouts every morning in your inbox. Take part with hundreds of others and stay in shape for your party outfits and sign up with your email on www.taransformation.com

So get ready to open the Advent workout doors and make December 2012 the most fittest, fabulous and festive yet!

This weekend I took part in the most INCREDIBLE experience of my life. Strictly Swansea was the most magnificent event and I feel so lucky to have been part of it. The journey was so emotional, I was nervous, scared, anxious but also very very excited!

Many months ago Blanche Sainsbury, the Managing Director of SWWMedia had a lightbulb moment about a Strictly event and I was so excited that I was asked to dance. Taking on a challenge and learning a new skill is right up my street, but never in my life would I have predicted that it would soon become one of the biggest highlights of my life.

Mario and Rebekah from DeMarco’s Dance School in Swansea have been amazing. They are the most incredible instructors and now wonderful friends and I can’t thank them enough for all the effort they have put in to teaching me, and all the others who were dancing on the night. My new Strictly family!

I also feel like the luckiest girl to have been teamed up with the amazing Blair Crewther. We got on like a house on fire from day 1. Blair had a hard task of putting up with me over the months, but he is the most patient, professional and fabulous person (and an amazing dancer btw) and with the help of Mario and Rebekah, somehow managed to turn me into a dancer! We have had so much fun along the way and have become brilliant friends.

The night was a huge success and I was over the moon with my Rumba performance with Blair.

I was so happy to get to the final with the lovely Melanie Walters and along with Lara Johnson, who was so fab the judges decided to choose her with a wild card; we had a really tough Jive in the dance off. It was one of the hardest workouts even for me as a Personal Trainer in Swansea but the best fun too!! Melanie was the winner of the night, and I was proud to have come second and delighted to have raised £300 for my chosen charity Tan Yr Allt Service Users Fund.

Now my amazing journey is over I have the Post-Strictly Blues. I want to go back in time. (In fact, Blair is also amazing by day and is a scientist – so I’m putting all my faith in him to invent me a time machine pronto!!) I miss my lessons, I miss Mario & Rebekah, I miss my new friends that also went through the same journey as me and I miss Blair. Sooooooo…that can only mean one thing!!! I’ve got to keep at it.

Strictly Swansea may be over for me now, but the journey was too amazing to leave there. The dancing shoes are with me to stay and I can’t wait to see what exciting memories they will see me through in the future!!

On Sunday 16th September our Health Club Deputy Manager Rob Crabtree competed in the Ironman Wales race in Tenby, Pembrokeshire. The event consisted of a 2.4 mile sea swim, 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile marathon to finish. This was also his first ever Ironman race and coincidentally his first marathon.

Rob completed his first Ironman in 12hrs 03mins, beating his target by 57 minutes. He also raised money for Help for Heroes, so if you would like to donate, please come along to the club or donate online at www.bmycharity.com/RobCrabtree

Swim time: 1:03:21

Bike time: 6:38

Run Time: 4:03

He is now an Ironman, and will never let us forget it (bragging rights)!